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It's always a fun read (Random Questions you want answered) in the "Everything Else" sub-forum, so why not for our sadly-less-frequently-visited Tech-sub-forum?

My best friend's hard drive went kablooey a few days ago, and she asked me if I could replace it for her. "Sure!" I said, then realized it was her laptop - I've built her desktop systems for years, but I have never messed with laptops much at all, beyond installing operating systems/drivers/etc.

Bad choice? Good choice? Better options? She doesn't want an SSD, and desires at least 500 GB of space. I usually go with Seagate for my drives, but I have no experience with them for laptop drives. Is the procedure akin to wizardry in a laptop, or is it similar to the generally friendly and straight-forward procedure of replacing a desktop hard drive?

Anyone here familiar with Teamviewer? I've got my network of PC's that I'm trying to set up so that I can remote in without needing to know the password. With my PC (Veloreyn-PC) this is easy because my user account is an admin, so Easy Access always works. However, on my kids' computers (Sabastian-PC and Tristan-PC) I keep them on standard user accounts so that I can have the parental rights time limits set without them just turning it off.

Unfortunately this comes with the side effect that I can grant Easy Access while in the admin accounts for those computers, but not the standard user accounts, which means I have to have a randomly generated password to connect. I tried running Teamviewer as admin within their standard accounts but it doesn't give me access to the Easy Access settings. Does anyone know a way around this that gets me access without a password without having to give my kids admin rights?

I feel like this should “just work” because I’ve set this up hundreds of times and never had that problem. But we use “unattended access” which is different to “easy access” even though it seems like the same thing. Maybe check the security settings to see if you can set that up?

I keep getting DNS timeout errors. Rebooting the cable modem/router fixes it for a time. The thing is, the problem recurs whether I'm set to get my DNS info automatically from Comcast or using Google's DNS servers. I suspect the modem/router unit is going bad. Does that sound right?

I keep getting DNS timeout errors. Rebooting the cable modem/router fixes it for a time. The thing is, the problem recurs whether I'm set to get my DNS info automatically from Comcast or using Google's DNS servers. I suspect the modem/router unit is going bad. Does that sound right?

I keep getting DNS timeout errors. Rebooting the cable modem/router fixes it for a time. The thing is, the problem recurs whether I'm set to get my DNS info automatically from Comcast or using Google's DNS servers. I suspect the modem/router unit is going bad. Does that sound right?

You mean like, redirecting me from Google's DNS servers to their own? I guess that's possible. Not sure how I'd figure that out if they were.

Right now I've got my own computer on a direct line to the cable modem, just to see if anything else on the network is interfering. Unfortunately this process takes a while because it isn't reliably unreliable.

You mean like, redirecting me from Google's DNS servers to their own? I guess that's possible. Not sure how I'd figure that out if they were.

Right now I've got my own computer on a direct line to the cable modem, just to see if anything else on the network is interfering. Unfortunately this process takes a while because it isn't reliably unreliable.

If your router supports it, enabling DNSSEC and using a DNS provider which supports DNSSEC (Google does, also Cloudflare and Quad9 and some others) would help prevent DNS hijacking.

I keep getting DNS timeout errors. Rebooting the cable modem/router fixes it for a time. The thing is, the problem recurs whether I'm set to get my DNS info automatically from Comcast or using Google's DNS servers. I suspect the modem/router unit is going bad. Does that sound right?

You mean like, redirecting me from Google's DNS servers to their own? I guess that's possible. Not sure how I'd figure that out if they were.

Right now I've got my own computer on a direct line to the cable modem, just to see if anything else on the network is interfering. Unfortunately this process takes a while because it isn't reliably unreliable.

I'd try that when you aren't having the problem and again when you are. I believe Comcast is one of the companies that redirects non-existent domains to an advertising page, so if you get an IP address for www.blahdittyblahdittyblahthisisnota..., they're hijacking your requests.

Some recent Googling by my wife has us suspecting the signal coming down the cable. Or maybe going up the cable. Only 3 of the 4 upstream channels are locked, and the power on those 3 is just under the minimum that Google's summary page says they should be.

It could be that my requests just aren't getting out to the Internet reliably. That could explain why I can have one tab showing an uninterrupted Twitch stream while another just shows an error claiming that I have no Internet at all.

Some recent Googling by my wife has us suspecting the signal coming down the cable. Or maybe going up the cable. Only 3 of the 4 upstream channels are locked, and the power on those 3 is just under the minimum that Google's summary page says they should be.

It could be that my requests just aren't getting out to the Internet reliably. That could explain why I can have one tab showing an uninterrupted Twitch stream while another just shows an error claiming that I have no Internet at all.

I had similar modem issues years ago and they were caused by having an amp for the TV signal on the same line as the cable modem. To fix it they had to split the line where it came into the house before it hit the amp so that the modem was isolated from said amp.

Some recent Googling by my wife has us suspecting the signal coming down the cable. Or maybe going up the cable. Only 3 of the 4 upstream channels are locked, and the power on those 3 is just under the minimum that Google's summary page says they should be.

It could be that my requests just aren't getting out to the Internet reliably. That could explain why I can have one tab showing an uninterrupted Twitch stream while another just shows an error claiming that I have no Internet at all.

Having only three upstream channels isn't too weird. A lot of systems (including the one I used to work for) haven't upgraded to four upstreams yet. Unless you're seeing a channel frequency in the fourth slot and it's unable to lock in and utilize it, that's probably not an issue. If you want, post your signal levels and I'll give you feedback on 'em. I used to be a network tech for Comcast.

If your upstream power levels are down around (or under) 35 dBmV, then the most likely issue is that you're too close to the noise floor and any little blip of interference that hits the node will cause packet loss for you on the upstream. The easiest way to increase your upstream transmit is to add splitters, but doing so without properly terminating the ports can actually cause reflections of the signal within the system.

I bought a new modem this morning. They've rolled out some faster tiers of service in my neighborhood and we'd need one anyway if we want to upgrade, so I figured I'd give it a try. And if it doesn't work I have 15 days to return it. I plugged it in and the Xfinity activation site popped up. I got a couple clicks in and then got the same no DNS/no Internet error that I'd been seeing before. At that point I stopped and called Comcast. I have an appointment for a technician to come tomorrow morning.

Once that was set up, I figured I'd plug the old modem back in and see if I could limp through the day rebooting as necessary. As of half an hour ago I hadn't had to reboot. Then Comcast called for a followup. They had me swap over to the new modem and activate it. I'm supposed to use the Internet this afternoon and they'll call me back at 7 to see how things are going.

I think I'll go poke through the image thread for a while. That's usually where I would notice the connection issues soonest, what with all the embedded images from various sources.

I don't have the RCA sockets, but I'm thinking that I could use an RCA to 3.5mm cable and plug in to the mic input. Failing that, there's the headphone amp idea that Rykin suggested, though that does start to make things a little more pricey.

Following up on this, if anyone's interested, I've got it working. I'm using an RCA to VGA converter to connect to the monitor, with an RCA to 3.5mm in the line-in input on my PC. Works well enough, currently enjoying Lylat Wars/Star Fox 64 for the first time in a long time!